AG Healey's Hate Crime Hotline Received 400 Calls In First Week

Attorney General Maura Healey says a hotline her office set up last week in response to post-election reports of hate crimes and harassment has already received 400 calls.

Healey revealed the tally at a "No Place for Hate" rally at the State House Monday, which was organized by the Anti-Defamation League and attended by hundreds of residents, including several elected officials.

"When we see efforts to sow division on racial, ethnic or religious lines, we must do everything at its earliest possible juncture to denounce it and to reject it," Healey said at the rally.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh was also there and called on the crowd to be tolerant of different views and respect the democratic process, but said people need to speak up "when hate rears its ugly head."

State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg called the "escalation in hatred, intolerance and violence" frightening.

"Not in the Midwest, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in Wellesley, Massachusetts, in Northampton, Massachusetts, and we cannot afford to wait and see," she said.

Newton resident Elaine Landes also attended Monday's rally. The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Landes said she came out because she believes society should speak up before bad things happen.

"I often think back if I was living in those times what I would've done, what could've been done," Landes said. "So for me this is about my family."

The Anti-Defamation League says reports of hate incidents have tripled in the region since Election Day, coming from communities including Boston, Cambridge, Billerica, Natick, Northampton, Newton and Wellesley.

With reporting by WBUR's Simón Ríos

Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Elaine Landes' name. We regret the error.